This year, 86% of the nearly 1,300 accounts we followed deleted a tweet, compared to 76% from the year before. Politwoops collected 682,980 tweets and caught 19,195 deletions, though only 5,203 deletions were approved as we screen out corrected typos, Twitter handles and dead links. The rate of approval fell to 27% from last year’s 32%, and the volume of deletions nearly doubled as it was an election year.

All about the money – It was likely a simple butt tweet, but a deletion that said “$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$” resonated with Politwoops visitors. It came in July from the official account of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and matched up nicely with a quote from a retiring Senator who said, “time is so consumed with raising money now.” A number of months later, the campaign account for Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser, D-D.C., deleted a retweet that said, “$$$$it’s$$$$$all$$$$$about$$$$$$$the$$$$$$.” The deletion was of a tweet responding to Washington Post reporter, Mike DeBonis, who pointed out Bowser was using the recent endorsement of President Obama to fundraise.

Ted Cruz’s troll bait – In May, the official account of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, deleted a tweet with the picture to the right that said, “Did a little shopping for the office with @SenMikeLee in Houston today.” The message garnered praise from Roll Call who wrote, “Sen. Ted Cruz did a little troll hunting April 23, baiting the entirety of the Internet-enabled world with a perplexing pic of an urban safari that incited carnage across the social mediasphere” and Cruz’s spokesperson told the Washington Post, “the office is not defensive of the picture.” A week later it was deleted.

Obamacare messaging mixup – The House GOP led a messaging charge about the number of Obamacare enrollees who have not paid their first month’s premium following a report from Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee. Six Republicans who shared the message ended up deleting the talking point. The numbers showing only 67% had paid were immediately disputed by spokespeople from the White House and Health & Human Services, but they never offered their own data. A month later, the committee found 80% had paid their first month’s premium and discontinued updating the numbers.

Think of the children! – In mid-July, Adam Kwasman, an Arizona state legislator and ultimately unsuccessful Republican congressional candidate, deleted a tweet saying, “Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abrogation of the rule of law. #AZ01” along with the image to the right. He thought it was a bus of migrant children that was expecting (and protesting), but it was actually some cheerful kids going to a YMCA. He told a reporter he saw the “fear on their faces” and after being told it was some kids going to camp the reporter said “[Kwasman] did back flips trying to take back the story he told me.”

Muffed punt of the political football – In June, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released by the Taliban after many years of being held captive. The news was greeted by many members of Congress, but the politics shifted after many objected to the prisoner exchange for five Taliban members held at Guantanamo Bay. Six politicians tried to quietly delete their initial welcoming thoughts and prayers, but Politwoops caught them all. This group of deletions was by far the most notable of the year and the deletions went unnoticed until Politwoops surfaced them. Here are those deletions: